Valentines for Sweet Women

 I'm normally not very good at corresponding by snail mail, and even sending Christmas cards has fallen by the wayside the past few years, though I still love receiving them.  It's rare for me to hand-write a letter, especially since I work on the computer so much and type pretty fast.

But, I have always loved Valentine's Day and have fond memories of decorated valentine boxes stuffed with hand-made cards, back in 1st to about 4th grades at Smith School.  I wanted to make something this year from alpaca felt, and combine it with hearts and sewing and to give them to some of the women in my life that mean a lot to me.

I gathered some of the materials I love- red burlap, cute fabrics, and scrapbook paper, and even some paper Trader Joe's bags, without any idea of how I wanted to assemble everything.  First, I made the pins from hand-dyed alpaca felt, cutting heart shapes with pinking shears (I LOVE pinking shears, don't you?) and then sewing on hearts of coordinating fabric with zig-zag stitch.

 

I wrote a kinda corny/sappy but heartfelt poem, and printed it on scrapbook paper, trimmed it out with the pinking shears, and sewed it to the backside, signing each one in red ink.

 I found lots of online tutorials on how to make envelopes, here's one, and used a poster-board template to cut the envelopes from the Trader Joe's bags, leaving the printed side out.  I made label tags from the brown paper as well, and glued them to the outside with mod podge.  Homemade envelopes will definitely be on my agenda from now on, as they were fun and easy to make and added a unique touch.

Feel free to use any of my ideas, and Happy Valentines to All!

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Color to the Rescue

 Our Kentucky landscape gets a bit blah this time of year- above is a picture I took from the studio window on Monday....

And then yesterday....The snow always seems to brighten the hills and my mood, but it's easy to see why I want to work with bright colors at these times.  Here's some of the roving that I just had processed at Ohio Valley, already hand-dyed, and the resulting handspun yarn.

Valentine colors seem to be attracting me right now, I wonder why?

 

I've even nearly finished a new hat knit with handspun from last week's batch of roving.

 

The studio is absolutely bursting with brightness. And that doesn't even include the valentine fabric and felt surprises.... more on those to come.

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Time for creativity

This has been a good week so far, and I think I know why. First of all, it is feeling like spring will come around sometime soon.... I saw my first foals of the year this past weekend, and heard a tom turkey gobbling yesterday morning. It's a LOT warmer, and even our koi fish are visible in their pond after hiding out for weeks during the bitter cold. I got to have lunch yesterday with Marti and MB, the first time the three of us were together in months, and it felt so good to be laughing with them again.

Our new farm manager is back and getting into her routine, and best of all I've found a little bit of time to be creative! I got on a roll with some needle felting, and here are some of the results. I have lots of alpaca fiber dyed up to use for soaps and other projects, and it's so fun to pull out bits here and there for quick projects like these. Just for a few days, I'm trying to procrastinate without guilt... and not think about the billing, taxes, and other tasks that are always waiting in the wings.

All of the projects shown here can be found at Truly Bluegrass in downtown Versailles. I have taken new Seldom Scene alpaca yarn in, too, and will be adding more in the next week or so. I don't know about you, but having a chance to make things is great for my spirit at this gloomy time of year. What are you working on these days?

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Antler Memories

Mother Nature has gifted me twice in two days with one of my favorite of her creations... shed deer antlers. We have zillions of white-tailed deer on our farm, and February is the time that the bucks annually shed them. (Here's a doe that I photographed from the car window after one of our recent snows).

Yesterday, I found one while feeding, at the spot where one of our guardian dogs always lies. Today, I just happened to see a very lovely one laying in the grass near our driveway. Paul and I have a nice collection on our mantle, and hope to make something really neat with them someday.
My brother Andy was here two years ago, and we went for a long hike with the hope of finding "sheds." He had given me a gorgeous antler one time many years ago for my birthday- he found it in Colorado while hiking on a high plateau. On this walk, we came upon one of the most spectacular ones I'd ever seen, right in the middle of the trail and in perfect condition. I mentioned that I'd heard that sometimes a buck will lose both antlers at nearly the same time, so we should look for the other. Sure enough, just a stone's throw away was the other half of the pair. Andy kept one and I have the other- we took some silly photos with them!

My final antler memory goes way back to my sophomore year in college. I was extremely infatuated with a guy named Dave and was thrilled when he invited me to go jogging with him. We had what was to me an enchanting run, stopping at a pine forest on the outskirts of campus along the way. Later we crossed a field and came upon an antler. He saw it first and kept it, though I secretly coveted that antler since I was a city girl and had never even touched one. We went on a few magical dates after that, and on Valentine's Day there was a card and small package at my door- it was the antler! Our relationship never really went much past my own crush, but I do still have that antler.

I adore antler buttons, and am knitting a sweater vest right now for which I plan to use some that I brought back from Alaska. There is no doubt in my mind that Mother Nature always shares with us the best gifts, with examples such as today's beautiful weather and the lovely antlers!

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